Pandemic 2020 Takeout Eats: Hai Tang Cafe & Takeout

Hai Tang Cafe & Takeout located at 38 Buttonfield Rd in Markham

July 1, 2020: For dinner for the long weekend holiday, we decided to get takeout from a local Chinese restaurant which has recently become a favourite for us over the past couple of months.

The first blog post I wrote about Hai Tang Cafe & Takeout was in 2015 (which you can read here). Since that visit, I have visited them a number of times both for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. Those visits ranged from typical Hong Kong style cafe food to beloved favourite dishes to occasional dislike of some dishes to being a favourite once again. Their food has a lot of “wok hay” to it which in Cantonese means that the chef has enough “fire” in their stir fry dishes to really infuse flavour and quality into each dish.

Most recently, I discovered that their deep fried salt and pepper pork chops are one of the absolute best in the city. The burst of savoriness and umami-ness within each meaty bite can’t be beat. On one occasion recently, I was craving for these salt and pepper pork chops so much that we ordered just one dish for takeout. I ended up eating 90% of the contents in the large container in one sitting. It was just so good and hit the spot!

We also have been ordering their dinner combos which come with a big container of fresh white rice and generous portions of daily house soup. It only takes 15 minutes from the time of order (via telephone or in-person visit) for the order to be ready to be picked up.

Takeout menu

Second page

Lobster Combo for Four. $46.99

On this evening, we ordered the “Lobster Combo for Four”. For only $46.99, the combo included four dishes, rice, and soup: Lobster (prepared in the style of your choice: ginger and scallion, Maggi sauce, or salt and pepper, or Hong Kong spicy style for an extra $5), Deep Fried Chicken (half) or Steamed Conpoy Chicken (half) for $3 more, Spareribs in Peking Sauce or Deep Fried Pork Chop in Salt & Pepper, and Vegetable with Three Kinds of Seafood or Beef with Vegetable. If you want Vancouver Crab instead of live lobster, you could choose that in lieu too for the same price and accompanying three dishes.

Lobster

Steamed Conpoy Chicken (half)

Fried Pork Chop in Salt & Pepper

Vegetable with Three Kinds of Seafood

Pan Fried Eggs Foo Yong. $8.59

We added a “Pan Fried Eggs Foo Yong” (smooth scrambled eggs with shrimp) too to our order. Somehow, restaurants just prepare scrambled eggs to be so smooth and silky that it’s difficult to replicate at home.

The Steamed Conpoy Chicken is especially good too. The chicken is so smooth and tender and fresh.

This was an amazing meal with all of my favourite comfort food dishes. ^_^

I highly recommend Hai Tang Cafe & Takeout for affordable and tasty Chinese food and am so grateful that they continue to operate during the pandemic. They are very popular with lots of locals choosing to order from this solid establishment as well.

On another visit, we ordered two types of noodles: Fried Rice Noodles with Beef & Soya Sauce and Stir fried e-fu noodles. Both were so savory and well-made.